Formula 1 heads to the Lusail International Circuit for the penultimate race week of the 2025 season.
The three-way title fight between Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Max Verstappen is the major storyline this week. All three drivers remain alive in the title race and are separated by just 24 points, led by Norris with 390 followed by both Piastri and Verstappen with 366.
While Norris can technically clinch his first Drivers’ Championship this week (he’ll need to lead both his rivals by 26 points or more after the Qatar Grand Prix) there is a strong chance the title heads to Yas Marina and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
But another major story this week? Tires. Specifically, the lap restrictions that Pirelli has put into place for this year’s Qatar Grand Prix. What are the restrictions, why are they in place, and what could they mean for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix?
Let’s work through all of those questions now.
2025 Qatar Grand Prix tire restrictions
Pirelli, F1’s exclusive tire supplier, confirmed earlier this month that each set of tires will face a 25-lap maximum during the week. Those laps will be counted “cumulatively” over each session this weekend, meaning that if a team uses a set of tires for five laps during FP1 and then bolts them on during the Qatar Grand Prix, the most they can use those tires for is 20 laps.
With some limitations.
Here is the full description of how the lap restrictions will work, from Pirelli’s media release for the Qatar Grand Prix:
Every set of tyres supplied to the teams at the start of the race weekend can cover a maximum of 25 laps of the Lusail track. The laps will be counted cumulatively across all track session, including laps run under the Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car.
Laps to the grid and formation laps and those completed after the chequered flag in the Sprint and the Grand Prix will not be included in the count. As the Qatar Grand Prix is run over 57 laps, each driver will inevitably have to change tyres at least twice. Before the start of the Grand Prix, Pirelli will inform the teams how many laps are still available for each set.
As noted above, the Qatar Grand Prix covers 57 laps. As laps behind a Safety Car or during Virtual Safety Car conditions count towards the 25-lap maximum, drivers will need to change tires twice during the race to satisfy the requirement.
So pit lane is going to be busy.
Why is Pirelli imposing these restrictions?
In a word: Safety.
This is not the first time Pirelli has implemented lap restrictions at the Qatar Grand Prix. Back at the 2023 installment of this race, Pirelli noted excessive tire wear following an examination of the tires returned to them by the teams following the single hour of practice. Following each practice session, teams are required to return two sets of tires to Pirelli, and the tire supplier can then analyze tire wear.
Following the single hour of practice in Qatar in 2023, Pirelli found “a separation in the sidewall between the topping compound and the carcass cords on many of tyres that were checked” following practice. That raised the spectre of potential blowouts during longer runs, and with the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix notable for four front-left tire failures, Pirelli and F1 intervened in 2023.
Those interventions? First, race officials adjusted the track limits at Turns 12 and 13. As with many other circuits, drivers take aggressive lines at Lusail, but with the “pyramid” kerbs that were in place at the circuit in both 2021 and 2023, the combination of running long on the kerbs and the high speeds the drivers take at Turns 12 and 13 in particular made for a risky proposition.
In addition, prior to the F1 Sprint race Pirelli outlined that tires would only be allowed a maximum of 20 or 22 laps (20 laps for the first set and 22 for any subsequent set) in the Qatar Grand Prix. However, Pirelli noted that they would revisit those restrictions once they analyzed tire data from the F1 Sprint race.
Pirelli never got the chance to do a full analysis.
The F1 Sprint race at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix saw three safety cars and five retirements, and included an accident involving Esteban Ocon, Sergio Pérez, and Nico Hülkenberg. Given the nature of how that race unfolded, Pirelli could not conduct a full analysis of the tires.
So ahead of the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, Pirelli announced that the tires could only be used for 18 laps.
Race officials have since changed the kerbs at Lusail, rounding off the tips of the “pyramid” kerbs at portions of the track to try and reduce the damage that was being done to the tires. But even with those changes in place, Pirelli found after analyzing data following the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix that absent lap restrictions, the characteristics of the circuit were leading to a breakdown in tire “construction,” even when drivers tried to manage the degradation.
“The limitation, agreed with the FIA, F1 and the teams, was decided on to prevent the tyres from reaching their maximum level of wear, as happened last year, when tyres were nevertheless used past their working life, through management of their degradation. However, doing this puts excessive strain on the tyre’s construction,“ noted Pirelli in the media preview.
The characteristics of the Qatar Grand Prix put excessive strain on the tires, in particular the left front. Most of the 16 corners are taken at high speeds, and with ten of those corners right-handers, that puts excessive stress on the left front tires as the weight load is shifted to the outside on those turns.
In addition, the heat and humidity are factors. “From a tyre point of view, track temperature can lead to the appearance of graining even if, as is clear from earlier races this year, the current range of compounds seems to be more resistant to this phenomenon,” notes Pirelli. Furthermore, the smooth track surface also contributes to graining on the tires, increasing the degradation rate.
And while Pirelli has consistently brought the hardest tires in their range to Qatar — the C1, C2, and C3 are the tires of choice again this week — when you add all these factors together, Pirelli is concerned about tire wear. While they did not impose lap restrictions last year, when teams are trying to win a race and staying on the track rather than taking the time to pit for fresh rubber, they may push tires beyond their expected life, and as Pirelli found that led to a breakdown in the “construction” of the tires.
What could this mean for this weekend?
These restrictions might make for another punishing race for the drivers.
During longer race stints, drivers can manage degradation by backing off the throttle over the course of a lap or laps to bring the tire temperatures back down, and get the tires into a better operating window. With the robust nature of the Pirelli tires this season, that has turned many races that we expected to be two-stop events into one-stoppers, as drivers have been able to manage tire degradation and/or the tires simply held up better.
Take the United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas just a few weeks ago. Heading into that race Pirelli believed that a two-stop strategy might be the most effective, or a one-stop strategy using the medium and the hard tires.
But an early, impressive stint from Charles Leclerc on a set of soft tires changed the analysis for everyone, and most drivers used a one-stop strategy, going from a set of mediums to a set of softs. Lando Norris used that strategy to finish second, while Max Verstappen did as well to take the win.
Another driver who ran medium-soft was George Russell, who started on a set of the medium tires before Mercedes bolted on a set of softs for his second stint. Russell finished sixth in that race, and following the checkered flag I spoke with Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff about whether the teams expected the tires to hold up as well as they did, particularly the soft. Wolff admitted that was a surprise, but highlighted how the drivers are able to better manage wear this season by backing off, cooling the tires, and then having another push stint.
“Yeah, we were surprised they held on much better,” said Wolff to me in the Mercedes hospitality space that Sunday evening. “Although, you know, when you came close to another car and get surface overheating, and that is still highly damaging, but it recovers. You back out of it for two seconds, you give them a few laps to recover and back [you push again].”
But when Pirelli instituted the lap restrictions for the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, they also removed the need to back off to manage degradation. That mean for each of those 18 laps, drivers were pushing full out.
It proved rather dangerous.
Logan Sargeant, who arrived in Qatar that week with flu-like systems, retired from the race due to dehydration. Alexander Albon and Lance Stroll visited the care center after the race to be treated for heat exhaustion, with Stroll admitting he endured blurred vision during the race. Esteban Ocon even vomited inside his helmet. Twice.
And still finished seventh.
The heat and humidity certainly played a role, and F1 implemented the optional cooling system for this season due in large part to that race. Forecasts are calling for cooler temperatures this weekend, which could make things a little easier inside the cockpit.
Still, nothing is easy during an F1 race, and with these lap restrictions in place, we might again see the drivers pushing all out on each lap of each stint.
Which could mean more visits to the care center after the race.
If nothing else, with each driver making at least a pair of pit stops, we’ll see more action along pit lane.
And maybe even a pit stop that decides a title.
